Tanzania

Home-Start in Arusha, Tanzania

Home-Start Tanzania was established in 2009 and has been registered as a non- profit organization since 2010 under the laws of Republic of Tanzania, registration no S.A 17219.

The organization has 8 board members, including 5 from the Czech Republic who are helping with fundraising.

The main goal of the project is to provide support and help for the families with small children in Tanzania. These families live under threat of social exclusion and may be relegated to the margins of society, finding themselves without any sources of help and support.

The project makes use of voluntary workers who have been trained to work with families.

We are working with 42 families with 86 children and using 23 volunteers. We have two schemes, Baraa and Kijenge.

Our activities

Ruth, a 20 year old mother of three children who receives support from Home-Start.

The most frequent problems for the families in Tanzania are:

Poverty

Alcoholism

Young mothers,

Diseases (i.e. HIV.AIDS)

Unemployment

Large families

The Home-Start Children’s Centre

The ideas of having a children’s centre comes from the fact that most parents cannot go to work because there is nobody to help them take care of their children. In the centre the children play and are helped to prepare for primary school. One qualified teacher is resident at the centre.

Our focus is on ensuring that all children who have been denied care receive support from the centre.

These are the main reasons they are denied care:

Death of both parents, especially from HIV/AIDS.

Unwanted pregnancies resulting from the abandonment of the baby at a birth or as a result of a family dispute.

Children born to single mothers with physical or mental disabilities.

Simply the extreme poverty of the surviving parents.

Where does our funding come from?

Hilde and Peter from Norway giving balls and other things for the children at the Home -Start Children’s Centre.

A couple of friends from the Czech Republic showed an interest in funding us with 3000 ck each month for running the project in Tanzania. This is for paying for the organizer and office activities.

Hilde, a coordinator in Home-Start, Norway and her family also help us with 50 dollars each month towards the rent of our office.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Home- Start Tanzania has to raise funds through local and external sources in order to be sustainable. The targets are individuals, corporate organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and government departments.

All kind of donations are welcome including anonymous ones, donations in cash or in kind( such as clothing, payment of school fees, medical expenses, toys etc.) Volunteers are also encouraged to give their time to help families.